Category Archives: Castle Combe

Today we leave London for Southampton by National Express bus from Victoria bus terminal. Advanced purchased ticket cost £7 one way. The journey takes 2¼ hours and is a good way to catch some sleep and rest after four hectic days in London. We book our National Express ticket here.

Upon reaching Southampton, we went straight to pick-up our rented car from Europcar. We have pre booked the rental car here and purchased additional insurance to cover any excess here. Once everything settled, we are set for our journey to Stonehenge.

*(Malaysian driving license is valid in UK, you do not need an international driving permit (IDP). However it would be beneficial if you obtain an English translation of your license (if it’s the older version) at your nearest JPJ office at a cost of just RM10. They will print a standard letter right off their computer terminal. Just fill up a simple form and produce your driving license. It’s 2 minutes procedure but waiting for your queue number to be called is another matter).

If you are using Waze for your navigation, ensure that all the destinations you’re visiting, has been saved to your favorites. If you didn’t do so, once internet connection is lost so are you! If you have favorite your destinations, Waze will operate as an offline navigation device and will still guide you.

The journey to Stonehenge via Salisbury is just over an hour. Stonehenge is now cordon off and you have to park your vehicle 2 miles away at designated area. The entry fee to Stonehenge is £14.50 (must be purchased in advanced) which includes shuttle transfer. Just to pay that much and the hassle of taking shuttle bus to see some stones, my wife decided we might as well skip it. Anyway, she has seen Stonehenge documentaries many times on TV. From the parking area, you wont be able to get even a glimpse of Stonehenge . Back during my bachelor days, I could park the car by the roadside and walk over to Stonehenge all for free.

So we continued our journey to Castle Combe. After an hour’s drive, passed the town of Chippenham, we reached Castle Combe. This little village is so charming when I saw pictures of it in the internet, I am willing to fly 15 hours, take a bus for 2¼ hours and then drive for 2+ hours to get here.

No words can describe how I love this picturesque village. How awesome I’m able to reach here. I’ll just post pictures from now on. For the avid photographer, all around this village are photo spots.

Castle Combe.

This is just about what Castle Combe village is.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe’s town square.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Castle Combe.

Southampton to Castle Combe route map. We put up for the night in Swindon at Campanile Hotel which is about 45 minutes drive from Castle Combe.